In an academic or training environment, teaching and learning may include lecture and practice components. Generally, lecture includes one-to-many teaching where an instructor presents information to a group of co-located students in a classroom or other facility. Often, the lecture component involves a presentation of information or a demonstration with limited interaction or active participation by a significant number of the students. The practice component is typically somewhat self-paced and permits students to apply knowledge presented via a lecture.
Computer training facilities often feature a training room having training computers. Each of the training computers typically has one or more pre-installed training software applications. Such a training room generally allows students to interactively practice computer skills and knowledge. For example, the training room may permit students to practice with or apply information presented via a lecture in order to obtain “hands on” experience working with the training software applications. An instructor at the training room may supervise, monitor, and assist students at the training room as the students use the training room.
Frequently, however, students must travel from remote locations to the training room for training or practice with the training computers. For some, the expense, time consumed, and inconvenience associated with having to travel from a remote location to the training room is a significant burden.
Some companies, for example, maintain a training room for training individuals, such as employees and customers, on training computers. Requiring these individuals to travel to the training room for each training session can be expensive, time-consuming, and inconvenient.
Conventional real-time communications systems permit remote users to communicate. Recent advances in such communication systems integrate voice, video and data to permit interaction and collaboration between remote users. These systems are conventionally employed for delivering lecture-type components of certain training and education to remote users. Such systems, however, are generally limited in that they fail to provide students with hands on training using preinstalled software, such as that available at conventional training rooms. Accordingly, remote students are unable to conveniently obtain benefits of practicing at a training room without having to travel to the training room locale.
Further, conventional systems fail to provide a system and method by which an instructor may designate certain training computers for use in a particular training session and managing access to these computers by remote students. These systems also fail to permit an instructor to monitor activity of the users at the training computers during a training session.